


But our journey's still just beginning

by predilection



Category: Kamen Rider 555, Kamen Rider Series
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-26
Updated: 2014-08-26
Packaged: 2018-02-12 09:42:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2104971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/predilection/pseuds/predilection
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Takumi finally comes home and Mari gives him a haircut.</p>
            </blockquote>





	But our journey's still just beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Because this fandom needs more fics about Mari and Takumi, because the hair-cutting scene in the opening never happened in the series, because this fandom needs more hurt/comfort fics, and because I wanted this scene to happen.
> 
> This fic takes place around episode 41. There are spoilers so please tread carefully.
> 
> The title is a play on a line from [this translation](http://aesirsubs.wordpress.com/lyrics/double-standard/) of Takumi's character song "Double Standard".

Mari was happy that Takumi was finally back after all that had happened. 

She understood now that she was wrong to have ever feared him. He had revealed himself as an Orphnoch only because he had wanted to save her, and his actions had done the impossible -- he had brought her back from the dead. She also understood that her initial memories of the Ryusei School reunion had been flawed. Takumi had never attacked her. Even back then, he had been trying to save her.

Even after she apologised, and he told her there were no hard feelings, she still felt like something was different -- like something between them had broken the moment she had looked at him and seen only the monster he feared he would become.

On his second night back, Takumi collapsed on the couch after dinner, and Mari noticed that he was watching her out of the corner of his eye as she tidied up the kitchen. 

"Is there something on my face?" she asked him, when she caught him staring for the fourth time.

"Not really," he replied awkwardly, quickly looking away.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said, staring at the far wall.

She didn't understand why he was looking at her, but she wondered if he too could sense the way things weren't quite right between them.

When she finished cleaning, she sat down on the couch next to him. The silence that settled between them was awkward and heavy with the weight of the past few weeks. She looked over at him, wondering what to say, when she noticed that his hair was getting rather long. Automatically, she reached out to touch it.

He immediately swatted her hand away. "Hey," he said, acting annoyed.

"You could use a haircut," she pointed out.

He shrugged. "It's fine."

"I'm offering," she said.

He glanced over at her and held her gaze, and for a moment, it was like old times. Then Takumi asked, "Are you sure?" like he wasn't certain if she wanted to style his hair anymore. 

She probably deserved that, but it hurt. She tried not to let it get her down. She channelled that pain into sounding put-upon when she told him, "Of course I'm sure. I wouldn't offer if I wasn't sure."

She grabbed her kit and pulled out one of the chairs at the kitchen table for him to sit on, dragging it closer to the sink. He took a seat and let her slip a cape around his neck. Then she gently pushed his head back towards the sink and began the process of washing his hair.

Mari loved cutting and styling hair for many reasons, and one of them was that she liked getting her own hair done. She understood that there was something relaxing about having someone else take care of you -- about having hands massage shampoo into your hair and then having those same hands work diligently to make sure you looked your best. Hair was an art, and an intimate one at that. You had to trust your stylist to do their job and to do it well, and Mari wanted to earn that kind of trust in her chosen field.

She thought about trust as she gently towel-dried Takumi's hair and moved his chair so it was away from the sink. She thought about the fracture in their friendship as she grabbed a comb and a pair of shears and got to work pulling his hair away from his head so she could trim his hair while leaving his layers intact. 

"Do you want anything different this time?" she asked him as she worked, just in case he did.

"Do whatever you want," he said, as he always had before, and it reminded her that he still trusted her with this at least.

Her hands slowed as she worked on the pieces of hair that framed his face, taking her time to make sure they were perfect. His eyes were closed, and she realized that he seemed more relaxed now than he had since he came home.

"I'm sorry," she found herself saying as she worked.

He cracked open an eye to stare at her and then closed it. "We already went over this. It's fine."

"It doesn't feel fine," she admitted. "I know I hurt you."

He sighed. "It's nothing."

"It's not nothing," she argued.

She was almost done with the front of his hair when he muttered quietly, "I frightened you. For that, I should be the one apologizing."

Her hands stilled. Although she wasn't done cutting his hair, she placed her shears and comb on the counter. She stood behind him and placed her hands on his shoulders. She could finish the haircut later. What she had to do now was more important.

"I shouldn't have been scared," she told him. "Not of you. Not ever of you." She could feel tears gathering in her eyes and took a deep, shaky breath. "I made you feel like... I made you think that..."

"Mari," he said, sounding surprised and concerned, turning under her hands to look up at her.

"You're Takumi and you're Faiz and you're an Orphnoch and..." She was crying now, but she had to finish. She had to tell him. She had to make him understand. She lifted her gaze and looked him in the eye. "You're not a monster."

"Mari," he said again, getting to his feet and slipping out from her grip. A moment later he had his hands on her shoulders and was pulling her close, holding her against his chest. He was still wearing the cape but that didn't matter because he was solid and warm and here with her. 

"You get that, right?" she continued, clinging to him. "You're anything but a monster, and I'm so, so sorry I ever doubted you."

He didn't say anything, but she felt his hands move from her shoulders down her back until he was hugging her, and she heard him inhale a shaky breath of his own as he buried his face in her shoulder. 

They stood like that for a long time, nestled against each other until well after Mari's tears had dried. When they pulled apart, Takumi offered her a small smile, and Mari felt something bloom in her chest -- something light and beautiful that felt like hope and forgiveness.

"We're not done," he told her, as he gently tugged on a strand of his own hair. He sat back down in the chair with a faint smile still on his lips.

"No, we're not," she said and couldn't help grinning as she got back to work.


End file.
